An obsessive focus on a perceived flaw in appearance.
The flaw may be minor or imagined. But the person may spend hours a day trying to fix it. The person may try many cosmetic procedures or exercise to excess.
Another one to perhaps blame on social media or the fact that you can photoshop, or in ’real life’ have any ’flaw’ fixed. ANY. You can now wake up no make up and look amazing, yawn & act like that’s just you… Naturally.
As this tiny one said at the beginning of 2020 – it’s my natural year. Little chuckle as this just means no more photoshop – I can’t afford any treatments and quite honestly am pretty scared of them!
Knowing my quirky blonde luck – I would land up with one eyebrow in my hairline and the other under my last eye. Yup lazy eye – a flaw – call 911 who can live with that. Well, me.
This post started with me looking at this pic and questioning every aspect of my face. I mean, I know I don’t fall under the average looking meridian but people said wow exquisite???
My reaction? Would I upload as is? Unfiltered, no facetune.. The horror! I see droopy eyes, a skew nose, pixie ears, imperfect skin and so much more just a tweak could fix.
But, I promised to embrace me this year. Flaws and all.
And you know what? I’m happier. No pressure. No hunts for likes. Just embracing this 37 year old growing OLD, naturally. And my confidence us growing in leaps and bounds. Shout out to the flaws we should embrace, clearly.
And just a shoutout to those who think a girl thinks she us an 11 out of 10. Unless you get to date J Lo most of us feel like a 7 on good days.
So when you see a girl with even one beautiful feature, tell her. You may give her a day feeling like an 8!
The future is looking up for LinkedIn, which reported 33 percent year-over-year revenue growth on Thursday, as well as a 21 percent yearly jump of members, to 380 million. LinkedIn generated $712 million in Q2.
LinkedIn is also having more success generating paid users. Premium Subscriptions revenue was $128 million, an increase of 22 percent compared to the same quarter last year.
LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner discussed his company’s quarter:
“Q2 was a solid quarter for LinkedIn as we delivered greater member and customer value. We continue to execute against an ambitious R&D roadmap that has led to accelerated product innovation with new product rollouts throughout the remainder of this year. We also made progress working through transitions with our Talent Solutions sales force and the evolution of our Marketing Solutions business. Additionally, we have seen some early success integrating lynda.com.”
Other highlights from LinkedIn’s Q2, according to its press release:
Improved its flagship desktop and mobile product experience, leading to approximately 60% increase in year-over-year feed engagement, and search traffic growing meaningfully faster than overall member activity.
Further connected members with professional knowledge by surpassing more than 1 million unique long-from member publishers on LinkedIn, and launched a redesigned Pulse app for iOS and Android, delivering a more personalized news experience.
Further focused on helping members get hired. Unique visiting members to jobs-related pages improved approximately 40% year-over-year, while the recently launched Job Search app reached more than 3 million activations from approximately 1 million during the first quarter. In addition, the number of jobs on the platform also increased to nearly 4 million from approximately 1 million last year.
Closed its acquisition of lynda.com, adding to the LinkedIn platform 6,800 courses through 280,000 videos across five languages.
However, Wall Street was a little worried about how much of the positive movement came solely from its acquisition of Lynda.com. After an initial 14 percent spike, LinkedIn’s share value dropped nearly 5 percent.
Even with that, Business Insider reports that many analysts feel bullish about LinkedIn’s future. Wells Fargo Securities offered a positive statement about LinkedIn’s Q2:
“We favor LNKD’s position as the leading, global professional social network, where the company’s “clean signal” identity data powers connectivity to the benefit of members, corporate recruiters, and b-to-b marketers. We believe an expanding portfolio of products and international growth opportunities provides a ramp to multiple years of double-digit revenue growth and margin and earnings expansion.”
“We live in a society where the internet has created a generation of individuals who know a little about a lot, but a lot about nothing”
Completely loved this video and article, decided I had to post and share both on my blog. Being in the digital sphere and working on social media sites all day every day, I can only concur with both.
My blog on the ‘advantages and disadvantages of social media’ is to follow soon – when I have the time to write it, in between posting to clients blogs and social media profiles (point proven?).
We are without a doubt creating a world where perception is skewed, and depression and jealousy mounts, as people rarely post something depressing or sad about their lives on any platform. Instead it is all about: (And I am guilty of a few)
“Boom ,Whoop, Life is amazing” (really no problems?)
“Cant believe how lucky I am nothing ever goes wrong” (Haven’t even tripped over anything lately?)
“So In love” (Never fight? Wouldn’t post last nights argument huh?)
” On holiday perfecting my tan” (really no rain ever, ever?Are you on another planet where rain doesn’t factor into the climate – it rains everywhere, even on islands?)
And the standard “Go Monday ready to get this week going and get results!” (lets be honest you would rather be back in bed sleeping)
“Gym done, New health shake tastes amazing (que an Instagram pic), Summer is 4 months away lets get beach ready” (Wow …. another week starting your detox and gym after a weekend of drinking 4000 tequilas and a couple of bottles of wine, your body is just confused! And Summer is not the only reason to be in shape – Winter clothes look pretty crap on a fat bod)
And what is with #100daysofhappiness campaigns? Why not #100daysofhonesty or #100daysofhelping others. Post what you really feel and maybe try to help someone else add a “happy update” for a change.
We live in a world ruled by perfect images of perfect people with perfect lives who live in perfect houses with perfect partners and perfect children who have perfect jobs – realistic. No, impossible.
So I started by ranting and now it is time to stop – my blog on this topic is clearly going to be a long one – even though I am guilty as charged on a few of my own “hates”- I too am starting to get social media fatigue. It is time to go out and live in the real world. Experience moments not just photograph and upload them. Love and hug people not just like their status updates and pictures….
‘Look Up’ – A spoken word film for an online generation.
‘Look Up’ is a lesson taught to us through a love story, in a world where we continue to find ways to make it easier for us to connect with one another, but always results in us spending more time alone.
The way I see it, it all depends on how these sites, like Facebook or Twitter, are being used. Social media itself can be abused, overused, and taken advantage of. However, the power of social media itself is probably greater than the power of any person, any novel, any ruler, or even any country. But, whether that incredible power is a blessing or a curse is also one matter to question.
The power of social media can be something extremely influential. This first took a huge toll in the beginning of 2011 with the political upheaval of Egypt. The Internet’s far-reaching speed combined with social media websites to create something unforgettable. The voices of Egypt stood together to overthrow the regime of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, and they spread all throughout the world. The power of social media was also noted when Mexicans turned to it for survival, not too long ago.
At first, this served as a revolution. For the very first time, people’s voices and opinions were coming together to form something larger than themselves. But we have to wonder, is that power too much? History has repeated itself in telling us that it becomes a problem when one voice has too much power. One only needs to look at people like Hitler, Idi Amin, and Mao Zong for proof that giving one voice too much power can sink an entire people or nation. And in Egypt, this corrupting nature of power turned itself over from the ruler to the subjects which resulted in the same horrific effect. From this, it is clear that social media has a way of lending itself to this attribute of power.
Another way social media can act as a curse is through its changing the behavior of our society. Some say social media sites can lend to shorter attentions and less efficient work. Not only that, but my generation, that is, teenagers, tends to abuse social media and use it for popularity. Despite social media being a term with the connotation of connecting us, that seems to be one thing it is doing least. People who abuse Facebook, for example, by requesting and accepting as many ‘friends’ as possible, up to thousands, are giving those relationships artificial traits. Those relationships are so scattered and insignificant that many people don’t even know some of their ‘friends.’ These thinning relationships have no such value, and are illusions of genuine relationships. In this abuse of social media, values of building relationships and making new connections, as were the intentions of social media, are taken away and transformed wrongfully. Nevertheless, many people do use social media for positive purposes, which leads me to the side of social media that is a complete blessing to this modern world.
When used correctly, the benefits of social media can far outweigh some of its downfalls. Social media changes the world every day, in ways both small and large. For everyone who uses it, social media at least promotes and encourages communication and lends to more modern ways of learning and communicating. Not only do they lend to more efficiency in our rapidly evolving technologically advanced society, but social media sites are also some of the best ways to positively influence people by sharing your opinions. They act as platforms for your voice. If you have great ideas or want to be heard or found, websites like Google+, Twitter, and LinkedIn can promote those good intentions. Through these sites, you can find millions of people who share the same interests as you, and start making a difference, step by step.
Social media websites can operate as both curses and blessings in our modern society. The difference between it as a curse and a blessing all hangs on the shoulders of its users. You may choose to abuse the potential of Facebook, or to change the world with Twitter. The difference in your actions may be small, but the end result varies greatly, and it is up to you to decide social media’s role in your life.
Facebook Updates Cover Photos Guidelines to Allow Calls-to-Action
Too long have marketers cringed at the sight of wasted real estate and lost marketing opportunities. Facebook has quietly updated the guidelines for their cover photos to allow businesses to use calls-to-action on their profiles. Marketers can finally take advantage of the prime visual placement and optimize those cover photos for lead generation. Although Facebook did not openly announce that CTAs are allowed, they did remove the clause that prohibited users from promoting offers and products.
This means that marketers can utilize their cover images as a way to generate leads! Not only will lead gen be easier, but marketers can track that particular channel specifically by using tracking tokens within the links. Marketers should start jumping on these new updates and get the most out of their cover photos. Read the full article at HubSpot.
Facebook Working on Incorporating the Hashtag, From The Wall Street Journal
It seems that Twitter’s most iconic marker may soon find its way into Facebook timelines across the globe. Facebook is currently working on incorporating the all-powerful hashtag into its social network. For those of you unfamiliar with the hashtag, it is heavily used in Twitter as a word or phrase preceded by a # symbol that groups similar topics and events together. Facebook hasn’t yet decided how far they will follow in Twitter’s footsteps with the hashtags, but remember the two companies are already competing for online advertisers, and Facebook’s adoption of the hashtag could affect Twitter’s bottom line.This new addition to Facebook may have an impact on how marketers approach their social media strategies on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Find the full article at The Wall Street Journal.
Google this week announced the ability for companies to offer their users a single point of access to their application, much like Facebook’s Connect feature. Developers building apps for Android, iOS, or the web can now add a feature enabling users to sign in to apps outside of Google with their existing credentials, simplifying sign-in for users.
Clearly, the move for Google is an attempt to expand its role as the social network of choice. “Between using Google+, Gmail, YouTube, and Google Docs, Google is going out there with a pretty massive base,” says Harry Gold, CEO of digital marketing firm Overdrive Interactive.
Google says automatic sign-in will accelerate online registration and conversion, increase engagement among users, and, most key, give companies access to data on downloads, signed-in users, and their activity.
Ten companies have already implemented the Google sign-in, including publishers USA Today and The Guardian, restaurant guide OpenTable, Flixster, Fitbit, music sharing sites Shazam and TuneIn, discovery sites Banjo and Fancy, and Beautylish.
“This will give us great insights on the behavior and interests of Shazam users and will also enabled targeted in-app advertising based on artists and genres that people are listening to,” says David Jones, EVP for marketing at Shazam. Jones told ClickZ that the new version of Shazam incorporating the Google sign-in had gone up in a matter of days.
He also predicted greater engagement among users, as Shazam users share the music they tag with their friends, who will also be able to click on those links and listen. The site already has some 300 million users.
Unlike Facebook however, Google promises only to publish such information with specific user permission. “Google+ doesn’t let apps spray ‘frictionless’ updates all over the stream, so app activity will only appear when it’s relevant (like when you’re actually looking for it),” the company said in its announcement of the new feature. Users can first review the Google+ permissions screen outlining which data they are sharing and who can see their activity.
Somewhat ironically, companies with Google Brand pages that seek to sign in using their Google credentials may have more difficulty than a personal user, according to Alex Fender, a Google-certified consultant who runs digital marketing consultancy Funnel Science. Although the sign-in feature is open to any Google user, only brand pages with Google+ can use sign-in, he notes. But Google now requires companies that use Google+ to sign up for Google Apps for Business, a formerly free service that is now subscription only. (After a free trial period, it costs either $5 per user per month or $50 per user per year.)
But there are bugs in the verification process for Google Apps for Business that can lead to lengthy delays, according to Fender, who says he has helped around 100 SMEs implement Google Apps for Business. “The last client I worked with took two and half months to validate and was caused by errors that Google hadn’t seen before. What should only take a few minutes now takes weeks,” said Fender. “I think Google should stick with its core business model of search and they should quit trying to one up Facebook,” he concludes.
A Google spokesman said that he was not aware of issues with the verification process.
An Ordinary Girl On An Extraordinary Journey Through Life 